Prepublication Reviews and Expertly Selected Title Lists

Return to Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs is returning to Willow Lake, and those of us who have been there with her before know how often she can stop your heart. In Return to Willow Lake, she does it again. I have to admit I had a feeling I would like this book since what attracted me to the Lakeshore Chronicles series was Dockside and the story of Nina Romano and Greg Bellamy. The book opens with the wedding of Daisy Bellamy, Greg’s daughter, to the love of her life.

Sonnet Romano, the woman Nina raised by herself, is back and she has a fateful encounter with Zach Alger, her childhood best friend, while she’s in Willow Lake. She receives news that her mom is expecting and it’s a high-risk, late-in-life pregnancy. Nina doesn’t want Sonnet to worry, so she tries to keep some other medical news from her, though she does confide in Zach, the boy she “adopted” when he lost both of his parents. Zach lets Sonnet in on Nina’s secret about the devastating diagnosis, and Sonnet refuses a fellowship and decides to be with her mother while she is ill. While Sonnet is in Willow Lake, she finds out she may not be the woman she thought she became.

Wiggs does an excellent job, as always, of touching the deepest parts of human emotions, including the joy and pain of family, love, and coming home once more. They often say “life is not about the breaths you take but the moments that take your breath away”, and this book is definitely a testament to that statement.

Readers who love the Lakeshore Chronicles series will love this book, but there is enough backstory that a new reader to the series could start with this book. Either way, add it to your shelf today!